The Greek Super Cup (Greek: Σούπερ Καπ Ελλάδος), officially known as the Cup of Friendship and Solidarity (Greek: Κύπελλο Φιλίας και Αλληλεγγύης) was a Greek association football one-match competition, which was contested annually by the Super League champion club and the winners of the Greek Cup.[1][2][3]
History
Since 1948 and until 1976 several tournaments between the Greek champions and the Cup winners were played, but without official recognition.[4][5] The instutition got officialy started in 1980 under the name "Friendship and Solidarity Cup" or Super Cup of Greek football. According to the announcement, if the champion team of the Super League and the cup-winning team were the same, then the match was not held. It was organized for the first time under PSAT in 1980. For various reasons, the institution was interrupted until 1987. Then the HFF established the "champion-cup winner" match called the Friendship and Solidarity Cup, which was held with breaks until 1996. In ten years, seven finals were held: 1987 to 1989, 1992 to 1994 and 1996. It was then abolished, mainly due to the difficulty of controlling fanaticism in derby matches. For example, in 1990, the match between the champion, Panathinaikos and the cup winner, Olympiacos was cancelled, for fear of incidents due to the tense climate between the fans caused by the transfer of Stratos Apostolakis from the second to the first team. Matches were also not played in 1991 and 1995, when Panathinaikos had won the double, but not in 1997 and 1998. The double of Olympiacos in the following year and the general interest of continuing the institution waned, despite the fact that matches could have been held between 2000 and 2003. In the three-year period that followed Panathinaikos and Olympiacos emerged as double winners.[6]
In 2007, the Super League reintroduced the institution under the name "Super Cup", but it was not continued as in the following years Olympiacos and Panathinaikos won the double. In 2011, the match between the champion, Olympiacos and the cup winner, AEK Athens was scheduled but never took place for unknown reasons. In the following two seasons Olympiacos' won the double and the competition was discontinued.[1]
From 1987 to 1994, the Friendship and Solidarity Cup matches were held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, while in 1980, 1996 and 2007 they were held at Karaiskakis Stadium.[7] The matches were single-elimination and in the event of no winner was determined during regular time, a 30 minutes of extra time followed and if there was still no winner, a penalty shoot-out was held, which took place twice: in 1989 and 1996.[1][8]
Thomas Ahlström
Antonis Kopanos
Claus Nielsen
Chris Kalantzis
Toni Savevski